GUNDELLA SAYS

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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Witch Watch: Why mutilate a beautiful body?

from the Farmington Observer March 10, 1980

It looks like the good witch was 20 years ahead of her time by discussing the trend of body modification. Of course back then she probably didn't foresee the extent to which people would go in this direction. Then again maybe she did seeing as this isn't an uncommon practice in some parts of the world which have been practicing the rituals for some thousands of years.

The keyword in all of this is "ritual" seeing as the common goal of most practitioners up until the last 50 years or so was a sort of religious or ethnic experience while the trend in western culture seems to be that of a pleasure and pain principle.

A former good friend of mine who got a tattoo head on his head about 20 years ago told me at the time that it was a painful procedure but that it was a good kind of pain. While I laughed at him then I would just shake my head in disbelief now because he more than likely still believes in that statement wholeheartedly. Needless to say I don't care to understand that sort of rationale although it seems fairly cut and dry that it's a defense mechanism against some great psychological pain.

We all have our opiates I suppose but destroying the vessel that carries both our life and spirit seems tantamount to putting a small hole in the flagon of your favorite wine or kicking a dent in your brand new car because, well, for personal expression. Okay, I'm sounding like Jerry Springer now so I'll head back to the archives and scare up some Gundella ephemera.